The United States is ending all funding for the UN’s Palestinian refugee agency, the US State Department says.
It described the organisation, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), as “irredeemably flawed.”
The US administration has “carefully reviewed” the issue and “will not make additional contributions to UNRWA,” spokeswoman Heather Nauert said.
A spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas later said the move was an “assault” against his people.
“Such a punishment will not succeed to change the fact that the United States no longer has a role in the region and that it is not a part of the solution,” Nabil Abu Rudeina told Reuters news agency.
He added that the decision was “a defiance of UN resolutions.”
A spokesman for UNRWA, Chris Gunness, defended the agency in a series of tweets.
“We reject in the strongest possible terms the criticism that UNRWA’s schools, health centres, and emergency assistance programs are ‘irredeemably flawed’,” he wrote.
The latest move comes after the US announced back in January that it would withhold more than half of a tranche of funding for the agency.
UNRWA was originally set up to take care of hundreds of thousands of Palestinians displaced by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war.
The agency currently supports more than five million people across the Middle East, including providing health care, education and social services.
The US has been the largest single donor to UNRWA, providing $368m (£284m) in 2016 and funding almost 30% of its operations in the region.
The Trump administration had pledged $60m to UNRWA in January, but withheld another $65m pending a review.
That remaining payment of $65m is now expected to be cancelled.
Earlier on Friday, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said his country would increase its contributions to the agency because its funding crisis was fuelling uncertainty.
“The loss of this organisation could unleash an uncontrollable chain reaction,” Mr. Maas said.
In January, UNRWA launched a global appeal to fill the gap in its budget.
Some in Israel also raised concerns at the time that weakening UNRWA could cause regional instability and create more extremism in the region.
In January, US President Donald Trump indicated a change in approach when he tweeted that the US received “no appreciation or respect” for the large sums of aid it provided to the region.
That same month, Mr. Trump also threatened to cut aid to the Palestinians over what he called their unwillingness to negotiate with Israel.
Ms. Nauert told reporters at the time that the Trump administration had committed the $60m as a voluntary contribution for 2018 so that UNRWA did not run out of funds, and schools and health care facilities would not have to close.
She added that the US would “like to see some revisions made in how UNRWA operates,” to ensure that the money was “best spent” so that people got the services they needed.
New Mexico compound gang arrested by FBI
Five adults at a desert compound in New Mexico have been arrested by the FBI weeks after a judge received death threats for granting them bail.
The two men and three women, residents at a site where 11 starving children and the buried remains of a toddler were found, face conspiracy charges.
Child abuse charges against the five were dismissed after a 10-day limit for a hearing was missed by prosecutors.
They will now remain in custody pending a hearing in federal court on Tuesday.
The charges include unlawful possession of firearms by an illegal immigrant, which carries a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison, and aiding and abetting in the committing of an offence, the FBI said in a statement on Friday.
The accused had been under FBI drone surveillance at their remote compound north of Taos since May, according to Taos County Sheriff Jerry Hogrefe.
Police raided the compound near Amalia in early August in the search for a missing three-year-old boy, Abdul-Ghani Wahhaj.
It was then that they discovered the remains of a young boy along with 11 malnourished children, who were reportedly being held at the site. Police also seized “at least 11 firearms and a large quantity of ammunition.”
The boy’s father, Siraj Wahhaj, is suspected of abducting him from his Georgia home in December and was one of the five arrested.
He was detained at the site, along with Lucas Morten, Jany Leveille, Hujhrah Wahhaj and Subhannah Wahhaj.
On 13 August, Judge Sarah Backus granted bail to the five defendants after she said the prosecution had failed to convince her that they were a threat to the community.
The prosecution argued that all five adults were dangerous and claimed they had trained the children to use weapons and prepare to carry out school shootings.
“The state alleges that there was a big plan afoot, but the state hasn’t shown to my satisfaction, in clear and convincing evidence, what that plan was,” Judge Backus said.
She ordered that all five must wear ankle monitors and have weekly contact with their lawyers.
But her decision was met with protests including an email in which she was called an “Islamic terror sympathizer.”
The Taos County court building was evacuated briefly on Tuesday after the threats.
Prosecutors also said that the remains found at the site were those of Abdul-Ghani and that the other children said the boy had died during a “religious ritual… intended to cast out demonic spirits,” during which Siraj Wahhaj had put his hand to his son’s forehead, and recited verses from the Koran.
Abdul-Ghani suffered from seizures, but Mr. Wahhaj believed the boy was possessed by the devil and needed to be exorcised, court papers said.
However defence lawyers accused the prosecution of treating the five suspects unfairly because they are Muslim – something the prosecutors deny.
Nicaragua expels UN team after critical report
The government of Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega has ordered a team from the United Nations Commission for Human Rights to leave.
The expulsion comes days after a critical report into human rights in Nicaragua during months of anti-government protests.
The chief of the UN mission, Guillermo Fernandez, said his team would continue to monitor the situation from abroad.
More than 300 people were killed during the recent political unrest.
The report released on Wednesday by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights called on the government to stop the persecution of protestors and disarm masked gangs who it alleges are responsible for killings and arbitrary detentions.
It also described the torture and use of excessive force using interviews with victims and local human rights groups.
For its part, the government said the report was biased and ignored attacks by protesters on members of the governing Sandinista party.
President Ortega had invited the UN team to help monitor a national dialogue process between the government and the protestors which stalled.
He said earlier this week that the UN had overstepped its authority and was violating Nicaragua’s national sovereignty.
Lula: Brazil’s jailed ex-leader barred from presidential race by electoral court
Brazil’s top electoral court has ruled that jailed former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva cannot run as a candidate in the presidential election because of his corruption conviction.
Judges voted against his running in October’s ballot by a majority of six votes to one in the seven-member court.
Lula, 72, was leading in polls ahead of the vote despite serving a 12-year jail term for accepting a bribe.
His legal team has said they will appeal against the court’s decision.
Brazil’s Workers’ Party (PT) later responded to the court’s decision in a statement, saying it would “fight by all means” for Lula’s candidacy.
“We will present all appeals before the courts for the recognition of the rights of Lula provided by law and international treaties ratified by Brazil,” the statement said, adding: “We will defend Lula in the streets, with the people.”
Lula’s conviction for money laundering and corruption was upheld in January. In Brazil, no one convicted of a crime upheld on appeal can run for office.
However, exceptions have been made to the law before.
In declaring Lula ineligible to stand on Friday, one judge said: “What is at stake here today is the equality of all citizens before the law and the Constitution.”
Lula was convicted of receiving a renovated beachfront apartment worth some 3.7m reais ($1.1m; £790,000) as a bribe by engineering firm OAS.
He denied wrongdoing and said his conviction was part of a plot to prevent him returning to power.
The former president is the most high-profile person convicted in the sweeping Operation Car Wash anti-corruption investigation.
Despite his jail sentence, PT voted to nominate Lula as its candidate last month.
Lula reportedly chose Fernando Haddad, former mayor of São Paulo, to run for the PT should he be prevented from doing so.
Serving as president from 2003 to 2011, Lula presided over a surge in economic growth and major social programmes that left him with an 87% approval rating on leaving office.
But the former leader surrendered to police in April after his corruption conviction.
