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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s new Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Monday crucial elections to choose city mayors and provincial and county administration leaders would be held April 7, with a runoff April 21.

The elections will test the new pro-European Union coalition government's popular support, just six months after it won parliamentary elections.

POLAND'S PRESIDENT AND NEW PRIME MINISTER REMAIN DIVIDED ON RULE OF LAW DESPITE TALKS

Tusk and his Cabinet took office last month, vowing to restore the importance and powers of city mayors and local governments which the previous right-wing government sought to limit. Local administrations suffered slashed funding and stalled projects and investments.

"I hope that April will prove to be a good month for Poland's local government activists," the premier said.

Tensions between the new government and the previously ruling Law and Justice party, now the opposition, and its ally President Andrzej Duda, have escalated.

Law and Justice has been delaying government-proposed bills in parliament. Duda has vetoed a bill on state media funding and his aide warned the president will keep rejecting the cabinet's proposals.

Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Monday congratulated the winner of Taiwan’s presidential election, Lai Ching-te, saying in a statement shared on social media that he was looking "forward to close collaboration" and "strengthening mutual interests."

Marcos's congratulatory message is likely to be frowned upon by China, which claims the self-governing island as its own territory to be taken under Beijing’s control by force if necessary. President-elect Lai has vowed to safeguard the island’s de-facto independence from China and further align it with other democracies.

After U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken congratulated Lai on his victory, China’s Foreign Ministry said that message "sends a gravely wrong signal to the ‘Taiwan independence’ separatist forces," claiming it goes against a U.S. commitment to maintain only unofficial ties with Taiwan.

NEW TAIWANESE PRESIDENT BLAMES CHINESE POLITICAL AMBUSH FOR LOSS OF ALLY NAURU

"On behalf of the Filipino people, I congratulate President-elect Lai Ching-te on his election as Taiwan’s next president," Marcos said on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"We look forward to close collaboration, strengthening mutual interests, fostering peace and ensuring prosperity for our peoples in the years ahead," the Philippine president added.

The Chinese Embassy in Manila did not immediately comment on Marcos’s congratulatory remarks.

The Philippines adheres to the One China principle, which holds that Taiwan is part of China and recognizes Beijing as the government of China.

When asked earlier for a reaction to the outcome of Taiwan’s presidential election, the Department of Foreign Affairs in Manila briefly stated that it remains committed to its One China policy, which the Philippines adopted in 1975.

Marcos's remarks were made as tensions escalate between China and the Philippines over a series of territorial standoffs in the South China Sea.

NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Tanzania on Monday announced it had withdrawn approval for neighboring Kenya's flagship carrier Kenya Airways to operate a passenger service between the countries beginning next week.

A statement from the Tanzanian Civil Aviation authority said the move was in response to Kenya Civil Aviation Authority denying Air Tanzania the approvals it needed to operate all cargo flights between the two countries.

KENYAN LAWYERS PROTEST AGAINST PRESIDENT RUTO'S ALLEGED JUDICIAL INTERFERENCE

The statement said the ban on Kenya Airways passenger flights will start on Jan. 22.

The Tanzanian and Kenyan foreign affairs ministers later tweeted that they were engaging each other to settle the dispute amicably within three days.

The move by Tanzania is the latest trade dispute to plague the eight-member East African Community regional economic bloc.

Kenya has previously blocked the importation of milk from Uganda and farm produce from Tanzania. Tanzania has restricted importation of onions to Kenya, leading to skyrocketing prices for the essential commodity.

Landlocked Uganda is suing Kenya at the East African Court of Justice for denying government-owned oil marketer Uganda National Oil Co. a license to operate and handle fuel imports at Kenya's Mombasa port headed for Kampala.

Truck drivers and farmers protested across Romania again on Monday as negotiations with the coalition government over lower taxes, higher subsidies and other demands failed to reach any agreements.

Long convoys of trucks and tractors disrupted traffic on the outskirts of the capital, Bucharest, and other cities throughout the European Union nation. It was the sixth straight day of demonstrations.

Farmers are demanding faster subsidy payments, compensation for losses caused by imports from neighboring Ukraine, and more state aid for fuel costs, among other demands. Truck drivers are calling for lower tax and insurance rates, and have complained about lengthy waiting times at the borders.

A GUESTHOUSE BLAZE IN ROMANIA LEAVES 6 PEOPLE DEAD AND SEVERAL OTHERS MISSING

Meetings between the protesters and the agriculture and transport ministries were held over the weekend, but no agreements were reached. The demonstrators on Saturday also caused brief blockades at the border with Ukraine in the northeast, Ukrainian border authorities said on Telegram.

On Monday, Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu called for an "urgent drafting" of legislation to resolve the protesters’ complaints.

"We continue to negotiate in good faith with the protesters. We are fully open to dialogue," Ciolacu said in a meeting with ministers involved in negotiating with the protesters, according to a statement issued by his office.

The Alliance for Agriculture and Cooperation sent a document to the agricultural ministry on Monday listing 15 demands before a planned meeting between the parties later in the day.

If the ministry fails to meet a series of deadlines, the alliance will "urgently initiate" steps to expand the protests, the document said.

Romania’s national traffic police advised drivers to avoid areas where protests are being held to help ease traffic flows.

Taiwan lost one of its few remaining diplomatic allies Nauru to China on Monday, just days after it elected a new president, and accused China of attempting to pressure it while it affirmed the will of Taiwanese to go out into the world.

China claims Taiwan as its own territory with no right to state-to-state ties, a position Taiwan strongly disputes, and the two have for years traded accusations of using "dollar diplomacy" as they compete for diplomatic recognition.

Taiwan security officials told Reuters before Saturday's election that China was likely to continue to whittle away at the handful of countries - now down to a dozen - that maintain formal diplomatic ties with Taipei.

RETIRED US OFFICIALS LAUD TAIWAN AFTER PRO-INDEPENDENCE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE WINS ELECTION

Lai Ching-te, repeatedly criticized by China before the poll as a dangerous separatist, won the election for the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and will take office on May 20.

The government of the tiny Pacific Island nation of Nauru said that "in the best interests" of the country and its people it was seeking full resumption of diplomatic relations with China and would cut ties with Taiwan.

Nauru has recognized China before, between 2002 and 2005.

China and the United States have in recent years stepped up their competition for influence in the Pacific. In 2019, Kiribati and the Solomon Islands both ditched Taiwan for China in the space of a week.

The U.S. affirmed that its commitment to Taiwan is "rock solid" after Saturday's election, in comments delivered by former U.S. National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley on Monday during a trip to the island.

Taiwan's Deputy Foreign Minister Tien Chung-kwang told a hastily arranged media briefing after Nauru's announcement that the news had come suddenly.

Beijing specifically chose the sensitive timing after the election to target Nauru, Tien said, calling the move "ambush-like" and equivalent to a "a blatant attack on democracy", just as many countries were offering congratulations to Taiwan on the smooth voting process.

"Taiwan did not bow to the pressure. We elected what we want to elect. That's unbearable for them," he added.

China had offered Nauru, with a population of 12,500, money far in excess of what Taiwan provides its allies, Tien said.

"Once again, it proves that China's trying everything they can – money diplomacy – to repress us," he said.

BIDEN STRESSES US 'DOES NOT SUPPORT INDEPENDENCE' FOR TAIWAN AS WORLD LEADERS REACT TO ELECTION WIN

A senior Taiwan official briefed on the matter, speaking on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to speak to the media, said Beijing is offering Nauru $100 million a year.

A Nauru government spokesperson declined to comment.

China's foreign ministry said it appreciated and welcomed Nauru's decision. It did not directly answer a question on how much money it offered.

"Nauru, as a sovereign state, has made the right choice to resume diplomatic relations with China independently," ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in Beijing.

Taiwan's presidential office said Beijing's move amounted to suppression of the island's diplomatic space but could not undermine the will of the Taiwanese people to go to the world, nor could it change the fact that Taiwan and China are not subordinate to each other.

Taiwan's 12 remaining diplomatic allies include the Vatican, Guatemala and Paraguay, plus Palau, Tuvalu and the Marshall Islands in the Pacific.

Taiwan Foreign Minister Joseph Wu is in Guatemala attending the inauguration of its new president.

Nauru is a small and remote Pacific Island nation that uses Australian currency and generates revenue from fishing licenses and hosting a regional processing center for refugees for the Australian government.

An Australian bank providing the country's only banking service announced in December its plan to close its Nauruan operation.

Australia provides policing support and is a major aid donor, contributing A$46 million (US$31 million) in development assistance in 2023. The refugee processing center was forecast to generate A$160 million in 2024, although Australia plans to wind it down over time.

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Poland’s president and new prime minister said Monday they remain divided on the key subject of rule of law in the country, despite one-on-one talks in search of common ground in various areas.

Centrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk met with pro-opposition President Andrzej Duda to discuss Poland's security ahead of Tusk's planned visit to Ukraine, but also to identify areas where they can cooperate in the society's interest above their sharp political divisions.

POLAND'S PRESIDENT BEGINS PROCESS TO PARDON 2 CONVICTED POLITICIANS

In a sign that did not bid well for their future cooperation, both later said that they had found no common ground in the very sensitive area of the rule of law, where Poland's previous government and Duda himself clashed with the European Union.

Tusk's government is taking steps to reverse the controversial policies of its predecessors, making new appointments to key offices, wrestling control of state-owned media and even arresting two former government ministers convicted and sentenced by court for abuse of power.

Duda said he had "appealed" to Tusk to leave things as they were in some areas and to "give up attempts at violating the law."

He said that their talk Monday centered on the arrest last week of the previous interior minister, Mariusz Kamiński and his deputy, Maciej Wąsik, whom Duda is seeking to pardon in a lengthy procedure, and on the recent change of chief national prosecutor, opposed by Duda and the previous ruling team.

Last week Duda, who has a doctor's degree in law, drew criticism when he accused Tusk's government of applying the "terror of the rule of law."

Duda's aide Marcin Mastalerek says the president will be vetoing bills proposed by the government.

Duda's second and final term ends in August 2025, but his position could be weakened after the May 2025 election. In office since 2015, Duda has been often criticized for bending — or even violating — Poland's Constitution as he backed the Law and Justice party's government.

Tusk stressed Monday that abiding by the law is one of his government's principal guidelines and that all Poles, from top politicians to teenagers, are equally responsible before the law. He said, however, he did not think he had persuaded Duda to see the rule of law in the same way.

Tusk said his coalition government, which took office last month after an alliance of parties opposed to Law and Justice won parliamentary election, will continue to make tough decisions "because there is no other possibility of cleansing the situation in Poland."

Referring to the obstruction that Duda and Law and Justice have been mounting on his government, Tusk said he had been expecting that because "it's the result of the determination of those who have lost power to still keep their privileges, their position or sense of impunity." But, he added, "there can be none of that."

Thirteen years after they toppled the country’s longtime dictator, Tunisians are protesting President Kais Saied for ushering in what they see as democratic backsliding, blaming him for quashing the aims of the revolution that kicked off the Arab Spring in 2011.

Hundreds of members of opposition parties marched through the streets of the country's capital on Sunday, commemorating the revolution and expressing outrage at Saied's rule. They carried Palestinian and Tunisian flags, chanting for freedom, jobs, and dignity, while mourning the state of the current political landscape in Tunisia.

Though many said they were dismayed by the direction that Tunisia's first-term president has taken the country, the protest was smaller than in years past, reflecting political apathy and an opposition struggling to remain unified as November’s presidential election approaches.

14 DEAD AFTER BOAT SINKS OFF THE COAST OF TUNISIA, 54 OTHERS RESCUED

"After a successful start, Tunisia’s democratic transition today has broken down," Ahmed Chebbi, the president of the National Salvation Front, told The Associated Press. "Saied has exploited the citizens’ disappointment and the divisions that have taken hold among political elites."

Such criticism has become commonplace over the past two and a half years, throughout which Saied has temporarily suspended Tunisia's parliament, rewritten the country's constitution and imprisoned more than 20 political opponents for allegedly undermining state security.

That includes Rached Ghannouchi, the 82-year-old leader of Ennahda, the Islamist movement that rose to power after the revolution. In October, he was sentenced to 15 months behind bars for abetting terrorism and inciting hatred — charges his attorneys have called politically motivated.

TUNISIAN OPPOSITION LEADER SLAMS MILITARY PROSECUTION AS DISSIDENT CRACKDOWNS CONTINUE

"All of the revolution's gains have suffered setbacks due to (Saied's) seizure of all powers," Ennahda spokesperson Imed Khemiri said in a statement. "Fundamental freedoms have deteriorated, restrictions have been imposed on the activities of political parties, opponents are being prosecuted and the independence of the judiciary has been called into question."

Sunday's demonstrations took place weeks after Tunisian journalist Zied El Heni was arrested after criticizing the government. He was later released and received a six-month suspended sentence. Press freedom advocates said the case reflected ongoing concerns about press freedoms in Tunisia 13 years after the revolution.

Journalists have been consistently targeted, with several arrested on state security-related charges in Saied’s Tunisia, even though last decade’s revolution and the constitution written in its aftermath enshrined new protections for press freedoms.

"The situation for the press is worrying and very dangerous", said Ziad Dabbar, the President of the National Syndicate of Tunisian Journalists.

Members of a group of men who say they were sexually abused as boys by a Japanese entertainment mogul are accusing the company behind the scandal, previously known as Johnny's, of not being sincere in dealing with the victims.

Shimon Ishimaru, who represents the victims' group, said many have not yet received compensation. The group has asked to meet with company officials, but that has not happened, he said at a news conference with three other men who said they were victims.

Ishimaru is among hundreds of men who have come forward since last year, alleging they were sexually abused as teens by boy band producer Johnny Kitagawa. Kitagawa, who died in 2019, was never charged and remained powerful in the entertainment industry.

CHINA, NORTH KOREA AGGRESSION DRIVES RECORD JAPANESE MILITARY SPENDING SPLURGE

The company finally acknowledged Kitagawa’s long-rumored abuse last year. The company's chief made a public apology in May. The Japanese government has also pushed for compensation.

The company, which has changed its name from Johnny & Associates to Smile-Up, said Monday it has received requests for compensation from 939 people. Of those, 125 have received compensation, it said in a statement. The company has set up a panel of three former judges to look into the claims.

"We are proceeding with those with whom we have reached an agreement on payments," it said, while promising to continue with its efforts.

It did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday’s news conference.

The victims' group said it has been approached by dozens of people who had been told by the company that there was not enough evidence to honor their claims. Details were not disclosed.

The company’s production business, known previously as Johnny's, has continued under a different name, Starto Entertainment.

According to multiple accounts, Kitagawa abused the boys in his Tokyo luxury mansion, as well as other places, such as his car and overseas hotels, while they were performing as Johnny’s dancers and singers. The abuse continued for several decades.

The repercussions of the scandal have spread. In standup comedy, several women have alleged sexual abuse by a famous comic. He has denied the allegations.

The U.N. Working Group on Business and Human Rights, which is investigating the Johnny’s abuse cases, is to issue a report in June, including recommendations for change.

The Associated Press does not usually identify people who say they were sexually assaulted, but Kitagawa’s recent accusers have given their names. Critics say what happened and the silence of Japan’s mainstream media are indicative of how the world’s third largest economy lags in protecting human rights.

A powerful ethnic armed group fighting Burma’s military that is based in the country’s western state of Rakhine has seized a township bordering India and Bangladesh, the group declared Monday, confirming accounts by local residents and media.

Paletwa is the first township reported to fall to the Arakan Army, which launched surprise attacks beginning in mid-November on military targets in Paletwa, which is in Chin state, and townships in Rakhine. Paletwa is just north of Rakhine and borders both Bangladesh and India.

Khaing Thukha, a spokesperson for the Arakan Army, told The Associated Press on Monday that the entire Paletwa region has become a "Military Council-free area," referring to the ruling military government.

ETHNIC REBELS DEAL ANOTHER BLOW TO BURMESE MILITARY JUNTA WITH ATTACKS IN COUNTRY'S WEST

"The administrative mechanism and clutches of the military council have come to an end. The administration, security and the rule of law for Paletwa region will be implemented as needed," Khaing Thukha said in text messages.

The military government made no immediate comment.

The Arakan Army is a member of the armed ethnic group alliance that recently gained strategic territory in the country’s northeast. Along with the Burma National Democratic Alliance Army and the Ta’ang National Liberation Army — operating together under the name of the Three Brotherhood Alliance — it launched a coordinated offensive on Oct. 27 in northern Shan state along the border with China.

BURMESE MILITARY, ETHNIC REBEL FORCES AGREE TO IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE

That offensive has posed the greatest battlefield challenge to Burma's military rulers since the army seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021. The alliance says it has seized more than 250 military outposts, five official border crossings and a major city near the Chinese border, along with several important towns.

The Arakan Army is the well-trained and well-armed military wing of the Rakhine ethnic minority movement, which seeks autonomy from Burma’s central government. Rakhine is where a brutal army counterinsurgency operation in 2017 drove about 740,000 members of the Muslim Rohingya minority to seek safety across the border in Bangladesh. Rakhine is also known by its older name of Arakan.

The Arakan Army first said late Sunday night that it gained complete control of Paletwa township. The group also released photos of its guerrillas taking pictures in front of the township’s general administration office, the police chief’s office, the fire office and the municipal office.

Burma's independent national and Rakhine media outlets reported Monday about the capture of Paletwa, citing the Arakan Army.

A resident interviewed by phone said that Arakan Army had taken control of Paletwa town after intense fighting between the group and military that broke out last week. He spoke on the condition of anonymity, because he was afraid of being arrested by either side in the conflict.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PUSHES FOR INVESTIGATION INTO BURMESE WAR CRIMES

He said that he and most of the town’s residents left from Paletwa early this month to take shelter in nearby villages, and just a handful stayed behind. He said access to the internet and cellphone services in the area was almost entirely cut off as the fighting raged.

Another resident who left the town earlier said he hasn't been able to reach family members believed to still be in Paletwa by cellphone since early January.

Paletwa, whose location on the border gives it strategic importance, is where the Arakan Army first established a foothold in 2015 to fight the against the army. However, most of Paletwa’s inhabitants are from the Chin ethnic minority, and there have been tensions over the group’s operations there.

However, the Chin have been a major force in the resistance against the military since the army seized power in 2021, so they now share a common enemy with the Arakan Army.

Gaza urgently needs more aid or its desperate population will suffer widespread famine and disease, the heads of three major U.N. agencies warned Monday, as authorities in the enclave reported that the death toll in the Israel-Hamas war had surpassed 24,000.

While the U.N. agency chiefs did not directly point a finger at Israel, they said aid delivery is hobbled by the opening of too few border crossings, a slow vetting process for trucks and goods going into Gaza, and continuing fighting throughout the territory — all of which Israel plays a deciding factor in.

Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, sparked by the militant group’s Oct. 7 attack on southern Israel, has prompted unprecedented destruction in the tiny coastal enclave and triggered a humanitarian catastrophe that has displaced most of Gaza’s 2.3 million population and pushed more than a quarter into starvation, according to the U.N.

WHITE HOUSE URGES ISRAEL TO SCALE BACK GROUND OPERATIONS IN GAZA AS WAR HITS 100 DAYS: 'IT'S THE RIGHT TIME'

It has also stoked regional tensions, with Iran-backed groups in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq and Yemen carrying out strikes in support of the Palestinians. A missile fired by Yemen's Houthi rebels hit an American-owned cargo ship on Monday, days after U.S.-led strikes against the group over its attacks on international shipping.

In Gaza, civilians have grown desperate. Footage shared online by Al Jazeera showed hundreds of people rushing toward what appeared to be an aid truck in what the news outlet said was Gaza City. The Associated Press couldn't independently verify the video and it wasn't clear when it was filmed.

A day after the White House said it was time for Israel to scale back its military offensive, the World Food Program, UNICEF and the World Health Organization said that new entry routes need to be opened to Gaza, more trucks need to be allowed in each day, and aid workers and those seeking aid need to be allowed to move around safely.

"People in Gaza risk dying of hunger just miles from trucks filled with food," WFP Executive Director Cindy McCain said. "Every hour lost puts countless lives at risk."

The Health Ministry in Hamas-ruled Gaza said Monday that the bodies of 132 people killed in Israeli strikes were brought to Gaza hospitals over the past day, raising the death toll from the start of the war to 24,100.

The ministry, which doesn't distinguish between fighters and noncombatants in its tally, says two-thirds of those killed in the war were women and children. Israel says its forces have killed roughly 8,000 militants, without providing evidence.

On Monday, the military said its forces and aircraft targeted militants in the second-largest city Khan Younis, a current focus of the ground offensive, as well as in northern Gaza, where the Israeli military says it continues to expand its control.

Israel blames Hamas for the high death toll, saying its fighters make use of civilian buildings, and launch attacks from densely populated urban areas.

In Israel, a woman was killed and 12 other people were wounded in a car-ramming and stabbing attack in a suburb of Tel Aviv that police said was carried out by at least two Palestinians. They were later arrested. The police say the suspects stole three different cars and attempted to run down pedestrians.

Palestinians have carried out a number of attacks against Israelis since the start of the war, mainly in Jerusalem or the occupied West Bank. Around 350 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces in the West Bank, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry, mostly in confrontations during Israeli arrest raids or violent protests.

The fighting, now in its 101st day, has set off an unprecedented humanitarian crisis in Gaza, which was already struggling from a lengthy blockade imposed by Israel and Egypt after Hamas took power in 2007.

The crisis has been especially severe in northern Gaza: The U.N. said Sunday that less than a quarter of aid convoys have reached their destinations in the north in January, because Israeli authorities denied most access. Israeli officials had no immediate comment.

MORE THAN A MILLION PALESTINIANS IN GAZA ARE NOW DISPLACED

The U.N. agencies said they want access to the Israeli port of Ashdod, located about 24 miles north of Gaza, which they say would allow larger amounts of aid to be shipped in and then sent directly to northern Gaza, much of which Israel leveled in the opening weeks of the war.

Israel has blamed the U.N. and other groups for the problems with aid delivery.

Moshe Tetro, an official with COGAT, an Israeli military body in charge of civilian Palestinian affairs, said last week that aid delivery would be more streamlined if the U.N. provided more workers to receive and pack the supplies. He said more trucks were needed to transfer the aid to Israel for security checks and that the working hours at the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt needed to be extended.

After Hamas’ attack on Oct. 7, in which 1,200 people, mostly civilians, were killed and roughly 250 taken hostage, Israel sealed off the territory from aid. It relented after its top ally, the U.S., pressed it to loosen its restrictions. The U.S., as well as the U.N., have continued to push Israel to ease the flow of aid.

Farmers clogged Berlin streets with their tractors on Monday, honking their horns in protest at a plan to scrap tax breaks on the diesel they use, the climax of a week of protests that has tapped into wider discontent with Germany’s government.

Columns of tractors rolled into the capital ahead of the demonstration at the landmark Brandenburg Gate. Over the past week, farmers have blocked highway entrances and slowed traffic across Germany with their protests, intent on pushing Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government to abandon the planned cuts entirely.

They’re not satisfied with concessions the government has already made. On Jan. 4, it watered down its original plan, saying that a car tax exemption for farming vehicles would be retained and the cuts in the diesel tax breaks would be staggered over three years.

BELARUSIAN JOURNALIST FACES TRIAL FOR COVERING PROTESTS AS GOVERNMENT INTENSIFIES CRACKDOWN ON DISSENT

"Take back the proposed tax increases, then we'll pull back," said the chairman of the German Farmers’ Association, Joachim Rukwied. He said the demonstration sent a message to politicians that "too much is too much."

"We are an important part of Germany — please don't forget that," he said.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner was greeted with boos, whistles and chants of "Get lost" as he defended the government's revised plan. He conceded that the original proposal "was too much and it was too fast" and said the protests were legitimate and peaceful.

"There should be no special sacrifice by farming, just a fair contribution" to getting Germany's finances in order, he added. He told Rukwied that "your protest was already successful" and said the delay in cutting the tax breaks buys time to find ways to reduce bureaucracy for farmers and improve their productivity.

The plan to reduce the tax breaks resulted from the need to fill a large hole in the 2024 budget. The farmers’ protests come at a time of deep general discontent with Scholz's center-left government, which has become notorious for frequent public squabbles and lengthy wrangling over sometimes poorly communicated decisions.

In a video message Saturday, Scholz acknowledged concerns that go well beyond farming subsidies, saying that crises, conflicts and worries about the future are unsettling people. Polls have shown a comfortable majority sympathizing with the farmers’ protest, and Monday’s demonstration was joined by Germany’s road transport association.

Farmers say their frustration runs deeper than the current plans.

"We are not standing here today just because of the agricultural diesel cuts," Theresa Schmidt, head of an association that represents young farmers, told the rally. "In recent years and decades, we have been beaten endlessly — more and more requirements, tighter rules and restrictions."

"We have more and more requirements and are being overloaded with food from abroad that is produced below our standards," said Alfred Winkler, a farmer from the Bavarian region of Franconia.

Lindner said "agriculture isn't a sector like every other" and there are good reasons for state support, noting that it gets 9 billion euros (nearly $9.9 billion) from the government and the European Union every year.

Farmers' representatives met later Monday with the leaders of all three governing parties' parliamentary groups, who held out the prospect of action on the wider challenges farmers face. But they didn't resolve the disagreement over diesel tax breaks.

A political prisoner has died in prison in Belarus after authorities failed to provide him with proper medical care, a human rights group said Monday, a death that spotlighted cruel conditions in Belarusian prisons.

Vadzim Khrasko died of pneumonia in a penal colony near the northeastern city of Vitebsk after prison authorities had been slow to take him to a hospital, ignoring his pleas for help, the respected Viasna human rights center said. He died on Jan. 9, but the penal colony only reported his death now.

Khrasko, an information technology specialist who died at the age of 50, was serving a three-year sentence on charges of offering donations to opposition groups that the authorities branded "extremist."

BELARUSIAN JOURNALIST FACES TRIAL FOR COVERING PROTESTS AS GOVERNMENT INTENSIFIES CRACKDOWN ON DISSENT

Political activist Leanid Sudalenka, who served his three-year term at the same penal colony, told The Associated Press after finishing his term that he nearly died when COVID-19 swept through the facility. He said that he and other political prisoners had to wear a yellow tag on their uniforms, so they’re easily identifiable to guards who he said routinely bullied, abused and humiliated them.

Sudalenka said that methods of bullying can range from punishment cells and complete information isolation, to refusing a meeting with a lawyer and the denial of medical care and medicine.

A few other prisoners haven’t survived incarceration, including artist Ales Pushkin, who died in July of a perforated ulcer after receiving no medical care, and Vitold Ashurak, whose body was turned over to his relatives in 2021 still bearing a head bandage.

Belarusian authorities have cracked down on opponents of authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko after huge protests triggered by the August 2020 election that gave him a sixth term in office. The balloting was viewed by the opposition and the West as fraudulent.

BELARUS SEEKS LENGTHY PRISON TERMS FOR OPPOSITION LEADERS

Protests swept the country for months, bringing hundreds of thousands into the streets. More than 35,000 people were arrested, thousands were beaten in police custody and hundreds of independent media outlets and nongovernmental organizations were shut down and outlawed.

More than 1,400 political prisoners remain behind bars, including leaders of opposition parties and renowned human rights advocate and 2022 Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski.

Belarusian opposition leader-in-exile Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, who was forced to leave the country after challenging Lukashenko in the 2020 vote, called for an investigation into Khrasko's death.

"I received the tragic news of the death of political prisoner Vadzim Khrasko, due to inadequate medical care," Tsikhanouskaya said. "We must act now to prevent more deaths."

North Korea claims it launched a new solid-fuel, intermediate-range missile tipped with a hypersonic warhead on Monday amid its pursuit of more powerful weapons.

Sunday’s launch was aimed at verifying the reliability of the missile’s solid-fuel engines and the maneuverable flight capabilities of the hypersonic warhead, according to the North's state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA). 

KCNA reported the North Korean military said the successfully flight-tested missile was designed to strike U.S. military bases in Guam and Japan, as well as other remote U.S. targets in the region. It was North Korea’s first ballistic test of 2024.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff confirmed the launch, saying the missile flew approximately 620 miles before landing in the waters between the Korean Peninsula and Japan. 

CHINA, NORTH KOREA AGGRESSION DRIVES RECORD JAPANESE MILITARY SPENDING SPLURGE

KCNA’s report described the test as a success but did not provide specifics. It came a day after South Korean and Japanese militaries detected the launch from a site near the North Korean capital of Pyongyang.

Lee Sung Joon, spokesperson of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the military was analyzing the North’s latest test but declined to elaborate.

The launch also comes two months after North Korea claimed to have successfully tested engines for a new solid-fuel intermediate-range ballistic missile.

KIM JONG UN PERSONALLY OVERSEES LAUNCH OF NORTH KOREA’S MOST POWERFUL ICBM YE

Hypersonic weapons are harder to detect from traditional missiles as they are designed to exceed five times the speed of sound. If perfected, such systems could potentially pose a challenge to regional missile defense systems because of their speed and maneuverability.

North Korea’s existing intermediate-range ballistic missiles (IRBMs), including the Hwasong-12 that may be able to reach the U.S. military hub of Guam in the Pacific, are powered by liquid-fuel engines, which are fueled up before launch and cannot stay fueled for long.

More flight tests are likely to come soon and raise the alarm of neighbors. Some experts say North Korea could try to dial up pressure in an election year for Seoul and Washington.

North Korea has flown the Hwasong-12 IRBMs over Japan three different times since 2017. North Korea also launched its first military reconnaissance satellite in November and aims to launch three more satellites in 2024.

The South’s Defense Ministry demanded the North halt its ballistic testing activities that violate United Nations Security Council resolutions.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Nicaragua's government announced on Sunday that negotiations with Vatican authorities secured the release of two Catholic bishops and 17 other clergy members who were incarcerated last year under the current regime's escalated crackdown on religious leaders.

Authorities imprisoned Bishop Rolando Álvarez of Matagalpa, Bishop Isidoro del Carmen Mora Ortega of Siuna, 15 priests and two seminarians in recent years after a court, in most cases, accused them of supporting a plot in 2018 to overthrow President Daniel Ortega and Vice President Rosario Murillo's regime.

Álvarez was sentenced to more than 26 years in prison, stripped of his citizenship and declared a traitor last February "for undermining national integrity" and "propagation of false news." Authorities arrested Bishop Mora in December.

US OFFICIALS DEMAND NICARAGUA RELEASE 'UNJUSTLY' INCARCERATED CATHOLIC BISHOP

According to the Nicaraguan government's statement, Vatican Authorities received the clergy members "in compliance with Agreements of Good Faith and Goodwill, which seek to promote understanding and improve communication between the Holy See and Nicaragua, for Peace and Good."

Vatican News, the Vatican's in-house media operation, confirmed all clergy members, except for one who remained in Venezuela, arrived in Rome on Sunday and "are now guests of the Holy See."

Pope Francis said during the Angelus at the beginning of the year that the bishops and priests were "deprived of their freedom" in Nicaragua, adding that he hopes "that the path of dialogue will always be sought to overcome difficulties."

U.S. officials have long accused Ortega's administration of crimes against humanity for waging war against religious freedom and civil liberties. Both the Trump and Biden administrations and members of Congress passed measures to sanction financial lifelines to the Nicaraguan government.

The Biden Administration criticized the Nicaraguan government earlier this month for "unjustly" incarcerating Álvarez, who has spent more than 500 days in La Modelo Tipitapa — one of Latin America's most notorious prisons.

CATHOLIC BISHOP SENTENCED TO DECADES IN PRISON FOR TREASON AFTER REFUSING EXILE TO US: 'UNBRIDLED HATRED'

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller demanded the current regime free the religious leader immediately and without conditions, claiming authorities kept Álvarez in isolation, blocked independent evaluation of his imprisonment and released staged videos and photographs that increased concerns about his well-being.

Authorities convicted Álvarez after he refused to be exiled to the United States with four other priests and 222 other political prisoners who were expelled to the U.S. as part of a prisoner exchange with the Biden administration. 

The bishop chose to remain in Nicaragua in protest against Ortega-Murillo's crackdown on the Catholic Church in recent years.

Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), chair of the House Global Human Rights Subcommittee, worked to secure the release of the remaining prisoners and urged U.S. and Vatican officials to increase efforts to liberate those arrested in Nicaragua for practicing their faith.

REPUBLICAN SENATOR PRESSES STATE DEPARTMENT FOR INFO ON BISHOP IMPRISONED BY ORTEGA REGIME

"The lives of these courageous leaders of the Church in Nicaragua are no longer in immediate danger, but they continue to long for the protection and fundamental rights of those who still face human rights abuses and punishment for practicing their faith," Smith said in a news release.

Smith called the Ortega-Murillo regime's efforts to "crush" the Church in Nicaragua "a grave miscalculation."

"We will not forget the additional victims of the Ortega-Murillo regime," Smith said. "We have more work to do to secure the release of the remaining prisoners of conscience and to help the people of Nicaragua to secure the basic right to live as free people in their own country."

The party of former three-time Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif officially launched its general election campaign Monday with a rally in Punjab province, while analysts and his imprisoned rival accused authorities of attempting to rig next month's vote.

The much-awaited rally that Sharif's Pakistan Muslim League party held in the city of Okara came a week after the Supreme Court scrapped a lifetime ban on politicians with convictions from running for public office.

The Jan. 8 ruling removed the last possible hurdle to Sharif running for parliament and potentially securing a fourth term as prime minister. Sharif stepped down as prime minister in 2017 over corruption charges.

PAKISTAN'S SUPREME COURT LIFTS LIFETIME BAN ON CONVICTED POLITICIANS, CLEARING PATH FOR NAWAZ SHARIF

However, his 2028 conviction and sentences in graft cases were overturned on appeal after his return from self-exile, which election officials had said made him eligible to seek a parliament seat in the country's Feb. 8 election. Lawmakers will elect the next prime minister after the vote.

Analysts say the Pakistan Muslim League is likely to win many parliament seats and may end up in a position to form a new government after the election. Election officials have rejected the candidacies of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan and most members of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, or PTI, party.

Khan’ was ousted in a no-confidence vote in April 2022, but he remains a leading political figure despite his conviction in a graft case. Elections officials barred Khan from the ballot because of the conviction.

Sharif's daughter, who is the chief organizer of his party, traveled to Okara from the eastern city of Lahore to launch the election campaign. In her televised remarks, Maryam Nawaz asked people to vote for PML candidates and restore the party to power.

PAKISTAN GRANTS EX-LEADER NAWAZ SHARIF PROTECTION AHEAD OF HIS RETURN FROM SELF-IMPOSED EXILE IN LONDON

The rally was held two days after another Supreme Court ruling upheld the Dec. 22 decision by the Election Commission of Pakistan to deprive Khan's party of its previously used election symbol of a cricket bat. Khan is a former professional cricket player.

The election commission argued that PTI did not fairly hold its internal election last month for a party leader to replace Khan given his conviction. The party elected Gohar Khan.

Khan's party has said it does not plan to boycott the election despite its allegations of a coordinated effort to prevent it from fielding candidates and potentially governing Pakistan.

Many other politicians, including former Foreign Affairs Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, who heads the Pakistan People's Party, have also stepped up their campaigning for the parliamentary election.

A court in Cambodia on Monday convicted four land rights activists of plotting to provoke a peasant revolution by teaching farmers about class divisions and gave them five-year suspended prison terms.

The four — Theng Savoeun, president of the Coalition of Cambodian Farmer Community, and his colleagues Nhel Pheap, Than Hach and Chan Vibol — were arrested and charged in May last year by the Ratanakiri provincial court in northeastern Cambodia.

They were charged with plotting against the state and incitement to commit a felony for allegedly teaching about the class differences between rich and poor.

2 ANTI-GOVERNMENT ACTIVISTS IN CAMBODIA CHARGED WITH INSULTING KING ON SOCIAL MEDIA

The arrests took place ahead of last July's general election that critics said was manipulated to ensure the return to power of the governing Cambodian People’s Party of the then-Prime Minister Hun Sen, who led the country for 38 years with little tolerance for dissent. His son, Hun Manet, took over as prime minister in August.

The four activists had been arrested on May 17 after hosting a workshop in Ratanakiri province about land rights and other issues affecting farmers. The police detained 17 of the workshop’s 39 participants but quickly released all but the four, who were briefly placed in pre-trial detention before being released on bail.

Interior Ministry spokesperson Gen. Khieu Sopheak said at the time that they had been were arrested because their activities violated the law and deviated from their group’s main duties, which he said were to teach farmers more productive agricultural techniques.

He said the workshop instead discussed political issues such as the division between rich and poor and how to incite farmers to hate the rich.

"Their lecture was to teach about peasant revolution, about the class divide in society," Khieu Sopheak said. He said such language mirrored the ideology taught by the communist Khmer Rouge to poor farmers, especially in Ratanakiri province, in the early days of their revolutionary struggle before taking power in April 1975.

The brutal Khmer Rouge regime, which was ousted in 1979, is blamed for the deaths of an estimated 1.7 million Cambodians from starvation, illness and killing. Hun Sen joined the Khmer Rouge in 1970 when it was fighting against a pro-American government but defected from the group in 1977 and allied himself with a resistance movement backed by neighboring Vietnam.

UNITED NATIONS GROUP URGES CAMBODIA TO RELEASE CAMBODIAN-AMERICAN HUMAN RIGHTS ACTIVIST

Land grabs by wealthy and influential people have been a major problem for many years in Cambodia. Land ownership was abolished during the rule of the Khmer Rouge and land titles were lost, making ownership a free-for-all when the communist group lost power. Under Hun Sen’s government, much land that had been resettled was declared state land and sold or leased to wealthy investors, many of whom critics said were cronies of the governing party.

Theng Savoeun declared in a post on his Facebook page after the trial that he will appeal the verdict to win justice for himself and his partners, saying that they had been victimized and they had never done anything illegal, instead acting professionally according to the law.

He vowed not to abandon his work with farmers despite his conviction and said he would continue to stand by them to help improve their lot.

A volcanic eruption in Iceland has destroyed homes in the evacuated town of Grindavik as the country’s president is declaring that "a daunting period of upheaval has begun on the Reykjanes peninsula" where it unfolded. 

One person has been reported missing after falling into a crack opened by the volcano, which erupted in southwestern Iceland on Sunday. A series of earthquakes in the area late last year preceded an eruption on Dec. 18 – which spared Grindavik – but this time, aerial images have captured damage being done to homes and roads in the fishing town. 

"We don’t yet know how this eruption will unfold, but we must still take those actions that are within our power," Iceland President Guoni Th. Johannesson said in an address late Sunday, according to The Associated Press. "We will carry on with our responsibilities and we will continue to stand together. 

"We continue to hope for as good an outcome as possible, in the face of these tremendous forces of nature," he added. 

SCIENTISTS AIM TO DRILL INTO A VOLCANO’S MAGMA CHAMBER TO UNLEASH POWERFUL ENERGY 

Scientists said Monday that the eruption appeared to be dying down, but it was too soon to declare the danger over. 

Grindavik, a town of 3,800 people about 30 miles southwest of the capital, Reykjavik, was previously evacuated in November when the Svartsengi volcanic system awakened after almost 800 years. Residents were allowed to return on Dec. 22 following the first eruption. Since then, emergency workers have been building defensive walls that have stopped much of the lava flow from the new eruption on Sunday near the town. 

MASSIVE FIRE TEARS THROUGH RUSSIAN WAREHOUSE IN ST. PETERSBURG 

"Unfortunately [the lava] went a little bit more south than we had hoped for," Vidir Reynisson, the leader of Iceland's Civil Protection and Emergency Management, was quoted by Reuters as saying Sunday. 

"This is serious, it's basically as bad as it can possibly get. Although it might get even worse, who knows," Jon Gauti Dagbjartsson, an evacuated resident, also told Reuters. 

"I actually live in the house that I was born in and it's a tough thought to think that this town might be over, and I would have to start all over somewhere else," he added. "But if that's the case, then that's exactly what we'll do."

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was due to face Parliament Monday to explain why the U.K. joined the U.S. in striking Houthi targets in Yemen — and why British lawmakers did not get a say on the military action.

Four Royal Air Force Typhoon jets took part in last week’s U.S.-led strikes on sites used by the Iran-backed rebels, who have been attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea. The U.S. says Friday’s strikes hit Houthi weapons depots, radar facilities and command centers.

The Houthis say they have targeted ships linked to Israel in response to the war in Gaza. But they have frequently attacked vessels with no clear links to Israel, imperiling shipping in a key route for global trade.

UK PRIME MINISTER RISHI SUNAK MAKES CLIMATE ACTIVISTS SEETHE IN BOLD MOVE FOR ENERGY INDEPENDENCE

U.S. forces carried out another strike Saturday on a Houthi radar site.

British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said Monday that Friday's strikes had been intended "as a single action" rather than part of a campaign, but did not rule out U.K. participation in further military strikes.

"We will now monitor very carefully to see what (the Houthis) do next, how they respond and we will see from there," he said.

Keir Starmer, leader of Britain’s main opposition Labour Party, said he supported last week’s strikes but expects more openness from the government in future.

"If the government is proposing further action, then it should say so and set out the case, and we’re going to have to consider that on a case-by-case basis on the merits," he said.

The smaller opposition Liberal Democrats accused the government of "riding roughshod over a democratic convention" that Parliament should get a vote on military action.

"For Rishi Sunak to attempt to ignore elected representatives is disgraceful," Liberal Democrat defense spokesman Richard Foord said.

Sunak’s government is facing mounting demands on Britain’s ever-shrinking military in an increasingly volatile world. Hours after the strikes on the Houthis, Sunak was in Kyiv, where he announced a further 2.5 billion pounds ($3.2 billion) in military aid to Ukraine and signed a long-term security agreement with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Sunak — whose Conservative Party trails Labour in opinion polls ahead of an election due this year — also is struggling to revive his stalled plan to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda.

The Rwanda plan is an expensive, highly controversial policy that hasn’t sent a single person to the East African country so far. But it has become a totemic issue for Sunak, central to his pledge to "stop the boats" bringing unauthorized migrants to the U.K. across the English Channel from France. More than 29,000 people made the perilous journey in 2023. Five people died on the weekend while trying to launch a boat from northern France in the dark and winter cold.

London and Kigali made a deal almost two years ago under which migrants who reach Britain across the Channel would be sent to Rwanda, where they would stay permanently.

The plan has been criticized as inhumane and unworkable by human rights groups and challenged in British courts. In November the U.K. Supreme Court ruled the policy is illegal because Rwanda isn’t a safe country for refugees.

UK PRIME MINISTER RISHI SUNAK FACES CRITICAL VOTE ON 'TOUGHEST EVER ANTI-ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION LEGISLATION'

In response to the court ruling, Britain and Rwanda signed a treaty pledging to strengthen protections for migrants. Sunak’s government argues that the treaty allows it to pass a law declaring Rwanda a safe destination.

If approved by Parliament, the law would allow the government to "disapply" sections of U.K. human rights law when it comes to Rwanda-related asylum claims and make it harder to challenge the deportations in court.

But the bill faces criticism both from Conservative centrists who think it flirts with breaking international law, and from lawmakers on the party’s authoritarian right, who say it doesn’t go far enough because it leaves some legal routes for migrants to challenge deportation.

Both sides say they will try to amend the bill during two days of debate in the House of Commons culminating in a vote on Wednesday.

Sunak said Monday he was "confident that the bill we have got is the toughest that anyone has ever seen and it will resolve this issue once and for all."

A U.S.-owned ship in the Gulf of Aden was hit by a missile fired from Yemen on Monday, U.S. officials said.

The U.S. Central Command identified the vessel as the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged bulk carrier. The ship is owned by Eagle Bulk, a Stamford, Connecticut-based shipping firm.

"On Jan. 15 at approximately 4 p.m. (Sanaa time), Iranian-backed Houthi militants fired an anti-ship ballistic missile from Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and struck the M/V Gibraltar Eagle, a Marshall Islands-flagged, U.S.-owned and operated container ship," U.S. Central Command said on X. According to the statement, there were no reported injuries or significant damage. The vessel is continuing its journey.

This is the 30th attack on commercial vessels by the Houthi's since November 19th.

CENTCOM RELEASES STATEMENT AFTER LATEST HOUTHI ATTACK IN YEMEN: 'DESIGNED TO DEGRADE THE HOUTHI’S ABILITY'

The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO), which oversees Mideast waters, also confirmed Monday's attack, saying it happened some 110 miles southeast of Aden. 

UKMTO has received a report of an incident 95NM South East of Aden, Yemen. Master reports port side of vessel hit from above by a missile."

HOUTHI CRUISE MISSILE FIRED FROM YEMEN TOWARD US WARSHIP SHOT DOWN BY FIGHTER JET: CENTCOM

"Authorities are investigating. Vessels are advised to transit with caution and report any suspicious activity to UKMTO," it added.

Since the U.S. strikes on Thursday night and the one on Friday night, Houthi rebels have fired at least three ballistic missiles and one cruise missile toward international shipping lanes in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. 

These attacks include the Houthi's firing one ballistic missile into the Red Sea on Friday, Jan. 12th. No ships were impacted. 

On Sunday, Jan 14th, a U.S. fighter jet intercepted a cruise missile that Houthi militants fired toward the USS Laboon in the southern Red Sea.

In addition to the attack on the Gibraltar Eagle, U.S. Central Command said a second missile was fired from Yemen earlier in the day. It did not enter commercial shipping lanes. 

"Earlier in the day, at approximately 2 p.m. (Sanaa time), U.S. Forces detected an anti-ship ballistic missile fired toward the Southern Red Sea commercial shipping lanes. The missile failed in flight and impacted on land in Yemen. There were no injuries or damage reported," the statement read.

No group claimed responsibility for Monday's attack.

Attacks against U.S. forces and commercial vessels have increased in the months since the start of the Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7. 

This report is developing and will be updated. 

Fox News' Liz Friden and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

The United Nations appealed on Monday for $4.2 billion to help people in Ukraine and displaced outside the country this year, saying that people on the front lines have "exhausted their meager resources" and many refugees also are vulnerable.

About three-quarters of the total, $3.1 billion, is meant to support some 8.5 million people inside Ukraine. The remaining $1.1 billion is sought for refugees and host communities outside Ukraine.

A recent wave of attacks "underscores the devastating civilian cost of the war" and a bitter winter is increasing the need for humanitarian aid, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the U.N. refugee agency said in a statement from Geneva.

UKRAINE'S SPY CHIEF SAYS ATTACKS ON RUSSIAN-OCCUPIED CRIMEA WILL ESCALATE IN 2024

"In front-line towns and villages, people have exhausted their meager resources and rely on aid to survive," it said.

Ukraine has been subjected to massive Russian barrages recently. More than 500 drones and missiles were fired between Dec. 29 and Jan. 2, according to officials in Kyiv.

Nearly two years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the U.N. says 14.6 million people in the country need humanitarian help, while around 6.3 million have fled Ukraine and remain refugees.

"Hundreds of thousands of children live in communities on the front lines of the war, terrified, traumatized and deprived of their basic needs. That fact alone should compel us to do everything we can to bring more humanitarian assistance to Ukraine," said Martin Griffiths, the U.N.’s humanitarian chief.

"Homes, schools and hospitals are repeatedly hit, as are water, gas and power systems," he added. "The very fabric of society is under attack with devastating consequences."

RUSSIA WARNS UK THAT TROOP DEPLOYMENT IN UKRAINE WOULD BE 'DECLARATION OF WAR'

The U.N. said that Ukrainian refugees in neighboring countries "also need increased and sustained support." It said that only half of school-age refugee children are enrolled in schools where they are now, only 40-60% are employed and "many remain vulnerable with no means to support themselves."

Griffiths said donors covered 67% of last year's appeal for $3.9 billion for people inside Ukraine, one of the best levels in the world. He acknowledged that "the competition for funding is getting greater" because of crises elsewhere, including the war in Gaza.

"Amid everything else happening across the globe, we must stay the course for the people of Ukraine," Griffiths told reporters. "And it is a very sad reminder that today we're begging for attention for Ukraine when for so many days and weeks and months of previous years, we've had ... attention to Ukraine and we've begged for attention for places elsewhere," such as Sudan.