World
US taxpayer-funded UN agency's long history of enabling Hamas exposed
JERUSALEM — The shocking revelation that some employees of the U.N. agency UNRWA were part of the Oct. 7 massacre and transported Hamas terrorists in U.N. vehicles is just the most recent example of the heavily U.S.-subsidized agency’s relationship with Hamas.
“UNRWA is a horror show that is decades in the making co-produced by the United States taxpayer,” Richard Goldberg a senior advisor at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies(FDD,) said during testimony to a subcommittee of the House Foreign Relations Committee on Tuesday.
Fox News Digital has been digging over the years into the scandal-plagued history of UNRWA, an acronym for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East.
According to a dossier that Israel’s government submitted to the Biden administration in late January, 12 UNRWA employees allegedly aided Hamas in different capacities Oct. 7.
Seven U.N. staffers crossed into Israel Oct. 7 while others were accused of “participating in a terror activity” or coordinating vehicle movements. The Biden administration has given UNRWA $1 billion of taxpayer money since 2021.
AUSTRIA SUSPENDS PAYMENTS TO UNRWA AMID ISRAELI ALLEGATIONS UN WORKERS HELPED, CELEBRATED HAMAS
A truck marked with a United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) logo crosses into Egypt from Gaza at the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and the Gaza Strip during a temporary truce between Hamas and Israel in Rafah, Egypt, Nov. 27, 2023. (Reuters/Amr Abdallah Dalsh/File Photo)
Just weeks before Israel claimed UNRWA employees took part in the Oct. 7 massacre in southern Israel, Fox News Digital reported a Telegram channel used by more than 3,000 teachers for UNRWA in Gaza was found replete with posts celebrating Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel, praising the terrorists who raped and murdered civilians as “heroes.”
The Telegram channel is intended for UNRWA teachers and contains files with staff names, ID numbers, schedules and curriculum materials. In one post highlighted in the U.N. Watch report, UNRWA teacher Waseem Ula shared a video glorifying the Hamas attacks and posted a photo of a suicide bomb vest wired with explosives. The caption said, “Wait, sons of Judaism.”
TRUMP ADMIN CUT FUNDING TO UN AGENCY NOW ACCUSED OF PARTICIPATING IN HAMAS ATTACK ‘FOR REASON’: REP. MCCAUL
Fox News Digital reported on an August video titled “Askar—UNRWA: Cradle of Killers” purportedly showing Palestinian children inciting hatred against Jews and Israel at the Askar refugee camp near the West Bank city of Nablus.
In 2019, Fox News Digital reported that UNRWA schoolbooks were tainted with “systematic hatred” of Israel. UNRWA has faced years of criticism for allowing school text books to be filled with antisemitic chapters in its schools while also glorifying terrorists.
Two years earlier, in 2017, a Hamas terrorism tunnel was found beneath two UNRWA schools in Gaza.
Hamas terrorists left Kibbutz Be’eri, a village near Gaza, in ruin. (Tomer Peretz)
Stéphane Dujarric, spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres, told Fox News Digital by email, “As for donors, 15 donors announced funding suspension to UNRWA since 26 January (as of 29 Jan), namely: Australia, Austria, Canada, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Italy, Iceland, Romania Japan, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, U.K. and the USA.”
UN CALLS ON COUNTRIES TO RESUME UNRWA FUNDING DESPITE REPORT EMPLOYEES PARTICIPATED IN OCT. 7 MASSACRE
When asked if the secretary-general will urge UNRWA’s Commissioner Philippe Lazzarini to resign, Dujarric said, “Regarding Mr. Lazzarini, he continues to work with the full confidence of the secretary-general as he deals simultaneously with the allegations against UNRWA staff, on which he took swift and proactive action and continue[s] to lead the humanitarian response to what is unfolding in Gaza.”
When pressed if UNRWA is no longer tenable as an organization and beyond reform, Dujarric referred Fox News Digital to his Monday press briefing.
A man walks in front of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency building as UNRWA personnel strike demanding a salary increase because of the high cost of living in Gaza City, Gaza, Jan. 30, 2023. (Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
“The contracts of the staff members directly involved have been terminated,” he said. “An investigation by the U.N.’s Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS) was immediately activated.
“The secretary-general is personally horrified by the accusations against employees of UNRWA, but his message to donors, especially those who have suspended their contributions, is to at least guarantee the continuity of UNRWA’s operations, as we have tens of thousands of dedicated staff working throughout the region.”
Terrorists from Hamas during an anti-Israel military march in Gaza City. (Yousef Masoud/Majority World/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
During a briefing Tuesday, Dujarric claimed “UNRWA does not work with Hamas. We have operational contacts with de facto authorities like we do in every other place in the world where they are de facto authorities.”
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken described evidence that 12 UNRWA employees participated in the Oct. 7 massacre “highly credible.”
Despite calls for a wholesale revision of UNRWA, Blinken noted that UNRWA plays an “indispensable” role in furnishing aid to civilians in the Gaza Strip and that “no one else can play the role that UNRWA has been playing, certainly not in the near term.”
BIDEN ADMIN CUTS FUNDING TO CONTROVERSIAL UN AGENCY AMID ALLEGATIONS MEMBERS ASSISTED IN HAMAS MASSACRE
“This is the time to put stringent controls over UNRWA in the areas of education and [the] inspection of weapons,” UNRWA critic David Bedein, director of the Center for Near East Policy Research and an expert on UNRWA’s curriculum.
Bedein told Fox News Digital that the Palestinian Fatah party and the terrorist organizations Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas “are controlling the workers’ unions” for UNRWA teachers.
“You can stop that,” Bedein said.
Philippe Lazzarini, commissioner-general of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East holds a press conference in Jerusalem Oct. 27, 2023. (Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reported in 2012 that Palestinians voted UNRWA elected candidates linked to Hamas to 25 out of 27 seats on a union board that represents 10,000 UNRWA workers.
Bedein said there must be a plan to overhaul UNRWA. First, “Cancellation of the new UNRWA curriculum, based on Jihad, martyrdom and ‘right of return by force of arms,’ which have no place in U.N. education, whose theme is ‘Peace Begins Here.”
He insisted “UNRWA dismiss employees affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad or Fatah in accordance with laws of donor nations that forbid aid to any agency that employs members of a terrorist organization.”
Bedein notes that the “current UNRWA policy is that any Arab refugee resettlement would interfere with the ‘right of return’ to pre-1948 Arab localities.”
The refugee classification by UNRWA impedes the Israel-Palestinian peace process because it provides endless refugee status to generations of Palestinians who were not born in Israel.
According to Israel, the Palestinian demand to return all refugees is an impossible proposal because it would create a non-Jewish state.
Smoke from Gaza City fills the sky in the distance as an Israeli tank heads toward the Gaza Strip Nov. 22, 2023, in Southern Israel. (Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
Bedein argued that it was time to implement standards “to advance resettlement of fourth- and fifth-generation refugees from the 1948 war who have spent seven decades relegated to refugee status,” while calling for an audit of all donor funds from the 68 nations who support the agency.
The FDD’s Richard Goldberg concluded his congressional testimony by telling the committee that, “October 7th is the logical conclusion of UNRWA. It is of course what they have been training generations to do with the resources we’ve provided going to these terrorist organizations to carry out that mission.”
UNRWA did not respond to multiple Fox News Digital questions.
Fox News’ Lawrence Richard and Bradford Betz contributed to this report.
World
Naomi Watts to Star as Ballerina Margot Fonteyn in Romantic Drama ‘Margot & Rudi,’ With WestEnd Films Selling in Cannes
Naomi Watts is set to star in romantic drama “Margot & Rudi,” which tells the true story of ballet legends Margot Fonteyn and Rudolf Nureyev. The film, to be directed by “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” filmmaker Anthony Fabian, has been boarded by world sales agency WestEnd Films.
The story unfolds when Fonteyn, the greatest ballerina in the West, is 42 and sensing her career is over. Nureyev is 23, a rebellious Soviet defector — magnetic, explosive, unstoppable. Together, they ignite the stage and become icons of the Swinging Sixties. Fonteyn is reborn by Nureyev’s wild energy, but their bond is complicated by her marriage and his affair with another dancer. To preserve what they have, they will risk everything for one defining ballet—because the only place they can truly be together… is on stage.
Watts, who studied dance before becoming an actress, will star as Fonteyn. She broke through with her performance in “Mulholland Drive” and earned Academy Award nominations for her leading roles in “21 Grams” and “The Impossible.”
She next stars in “The Housewife,” as well as Cody Fern’s untitled debut feature film, with Sarah Paulson, Dianne Wiest and Odessa A’Zion.
On television, she received Emmy, Golden Globe and Critics Choice nominations for her performance in “Feud: Capote vs. The Swans,” and recently starred in “Love Story.”
Alexandr Trush, principal dancer with the Hamburg Ballet, will portray Nureyev. A Russian-speaking Ukrainian ballet star, he has headlined major productions including “Giselle” and “Romeo and Juliet.”
The film also stars Academy Award nominee Richard E. Grant (“Can You Ever Forgive Me?,” “Saltburn,” “Nuremberg”), Academy Award nominee Demián Bichir (“A Better Life,” “Land,” “The Hateful Eight”) and BAFTA nominee Harriet Walter (“Succession,” “The Crown,” “Sense and Sensibility”), with additional cast to be announced.
The screenplay is written by BAFTA nominee Olivia Hetreed (“Girl With a Pearl Earring,” “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”).
The creative team includes Academy Award nominee hair and makeup designer Karen Hartley Thomas (“Golda,” The Son,” “The Courier”), choreographer Arthur Pita (“Ex Machina,” “Charlie’s Angels,” “Sunshine on Leith”), and BAFTA-winning costume designer Fotini Dimou (“The Children Act,” “King Lear”), with additional crew to be announced.
The film, which is set to shoot in October, is produced by Mike Goodridge for Good Chaos (“Triangle of Sadness,” “Ballad of a Small Player,” “Quo Vadis, Aida?”), Anthony Fabian for Elysian Films (“Skin,” “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris”), Olivia Hetreed for Sympathetic Ink and Chris Coen (“Funny Games,” “The Childhood of a Leader,” “Shadow Dancer”). Executive producers are Thom Mount, Jeffrey Berg and Andy Paterson.
Fabian said: “Growing up in Mexico City, watching Margot and Rudi’s performances in the cinema sparked my passion for stories that blend music, theater and dance. The film explores the private joy and pain behind their public personas, capturing their unique chemistry. Ballet sequences from the duo’s most iconic roles and performances together drive the story, using movement and cinematic fantasy to reveal the truth behind a couple as famous in their day as The Beatles. Their love, defying barriers of culture, age, class and sexuality, is romantic, unconventional and thrilling — a love story like no other.”
Fabian’s previous film “Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris” was released worldwide by Focus Features/Universal International Pictures in 2022. It grossed over $30 million at the box office and received BAFTA, Golden Globe and Oscar nominations.
Watts said: “Dance was my first love, and I’ve long dreamed of making a dance film. I feel deeply honored and excited to be playing Margot Fonteyn, one of the greatest dancers of all time. Her relationship with Rudolf Nureyev was extraordinary — both artistically and emotionally — and I’m thrilled to be exploring it with such sensitivity and imagination under the direction of Anthony Fabian.”
Maya Amsellem, managing director of WestEnd Films, said: “’Margot & Rudi’ is a sweeping and beautiful story about two iconic artists who redefine each other at a pivotal moment in their lives. Naomi Watts is set to deliver one of the most transformative performances of her career, combining emotional intensity with the physicality of dance. With Anthony Fabian’s visionary direction and the film’s bold, cinematic use of ballet, this will be a powerful big-screen experience we’re excited to bring to the international market.”
WestEnd will introduce the film to buyers at Cannes Film Festival.
Watts is repped by CAA, Untitled and HJTH. Fabian is repped by Jon Cassir at CAA and Olivia Gray at Independent Talent. He is managed by Ensemble Entertainment.
Ships reportedly attacked in Strait of Hormuz as blockade turns 28 vessels around
Daniel Turner, Power The Future founder and executive director, analyzes the US blockade against Iranian ships in the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s strategy to outlast the US economically. He details the impact on oil and gas prices, arguing that markets need confidence to stabilize. Turner critiques current climate policies, stating they’ve made lives expensive and hurt the US economically and militarily.
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Iran reportedly opened fire upon three vessels in the Strait of Hormuz on Wednesday.
The British military’s United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) Centre noted that a container ship was fired upon by an IRGC gunboat near Oman Wednesday, causing “heavy damage to the bridge.”
“No fires or environmental impact reported. All Crew reported safe,” the notice said.
Another UKMTO warning said “an outbound cargo ship” west of Iran reported “having been fired upon and is now stopped in the water.” The notice said the crew was safe and accounted for.
“There is no reported damage to the vessel,” it added.
IRAN FIRES ON 2 SHIPS IN STRAIT OF HORMUZ AFTER TRUMP EXTENDS CEASEFIRE
Maps4Media processed and enhanced Sentinal-2 satellite imagery shows a broad view of the Strait of Hormuz between southern Iran and Oman’s Musandam Peninsula, including surrounding islands, coastal terrain, and turquoise shallow-water zones at the entrance to the Persian Gulf. (Photo enhanced and published by maps4media via Getty Images)
Iranian media said the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) was bringing two ships to Iran after seizing them in the Strait of Hormuz, according to The Associated Press.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN) Command claimed in an X post that the two vessels, the MSC-FRANCESCA and EPAMINODES, “had endangered maritime security by operating without the necessary permits and tampering with navigation systems.”
It said the vessels “were seized by the IRGC Navy and escorted to Iran’s coast,” according to a translation.
“Disruption of order and safety in the Strait of Hormuz is our red line,” the command wrote.
It also claimed the MSC-FRANCESCA is “linked to the Zionist regime.”
IRAN’S REVOLUTIONARY GUARD SIDELINES PRESIDENT AS MILITARY GRIP EXPANDS
Motorists ride past the Imam Sadiq (AS) mosque with a giant Iranian flag installed on its front at the Palestine Square in Tehran on April 19, 2026. (ATTA KENARE / AFP via Getty Images)
Iranian media also reported that the IRGC attacked a third ship, identified as the Euphoria, according to the AP.
The development comes after U.S. President Donald Trump announced Tuesday afternoon that the United States was extending a ceasefire.
“Based on the fact that the Government of Iran is seriously fractured, not unexpectedly so and, upon the request of Field Marshal Asim Munir, and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, of Pakistan, we have been asked to hold our Attack on the Country of Iran until such time as their leaders and representatives can come up with a unified proposal,” the president wrote on Truth Social..
ISRAEL UNVEILS GAME-CHANGING ARTILLERY AGAINST IRAN-BACKED HEZBOLLAH AMID FRAGILE CEASEFIRE
President Donald Trump speaks to members of the media outside the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., on Monday, April 13, 2026. (Salwan Georges/Bloomberg)
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“I have therefore directed our Military to continue the Blockade and, in all other respects, remain ready and able, and will therefore extend the Ceasefire until such time as their proposal is submitted, and discussions are concluded, one way or the other,” he added.
The Associated Press contributed to this report
Published on
A court in Moldova sentenced oligarch Vladimir Plahotniuc to 19 years in prison on Wednesday in a case linked to the disappearance of $1 billion (€850 million) from the country’s banking system.
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A former businessman, lawmaker and kingpin in the Democratic Party of Moldova, Plahotniuc fled Moldova in 2019, as he faced a series of corruption charges.
That included complicity in the scheme that led to money disappearing from Moldovan banks in 2014, which at the time was equivalent to around one-eighth of the country’s GDP.
He was extradited from Greece last year, after being arrested at Athens airport under an Interpol international alert.
A Chișinău judge announced the ruling on Wednesday.
The court also ordered the seizure of some $60 million (€51 million) from Plahotniuc’s accounts, said prosecutor Alexandru Cernei after the sentencing.
Plahotniuc, 60, was not present in court on Wednesday.
He had previously dismissed the charges, calling his trial “political” and “flawed from the outset.”
His lawyer Lucian Rogac said he would appeal the decision, deeming it “clearly illegal.”
“The entire process was conducted in a tremendous rush, with numerous violations of the defendant’s rights,” Rogac said.
After Plahotniuc’s return to the country, Moldovan prosecutors had demanded 25 years in jail, the maximum provided by law, in a case linked to the disappearance of money from three banks in 2014.
They accused Plahotniuc of forming and leading a criminal organisation, fraud and money laundering on a particularly large scale.
The influential businessman and politician was added to a US State Department sanctions list in 2022 for alleged corruption.
The charges included controlling the country’s law enforcement to target political and business rivals and meddling in Moldova’s elections.
He was added to a UK sanctions list in 2022 and barred from entering the country. His assets were frozen in Britain and its overseas territories.
Plahotniuc was accused of involvement in pro-Russian political campaigns and efforts to derail Moldova’s pro-EU course.
Additional sources • AP, AFP
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