International News Briefs for Wednesday, April 23, 2025
HAVANA TIMES – Here are some of the top international news stories compiled by Democracy Now on, Wednesday, April 23, 2025.
Israel Attacks School Sheltering Displaced Palestinians, Killing 10
Apr 23, 2025
In Gaza, at least 10 Palestinians were killed, including a child, after an Israeli strike sparked a fire at a school sheltering displaced people in Gaza City. They’re among 24 Palestinians killed by Israeli airstrikes on Gaza since dawn. Separately, civil defense workers in northern Gaza report Israeli warplanes have blown up nine bulldozers being used in humanitarian operations.
Khalil Nasser: “These machines serve us, removing the rubble from the streets and retrieving the martyrs from under the rubble. At the very least, they provide us with a room or tent above our homes. The Israeli occupation came and destroyed them. The occupation is still causing us harm.”
On Tuesday, Gaza’s Health Ministry said Israel’s total blockade of Gaza had cut off access to polio vaccines, putting the lives of over 600,000 Palestinian children at risk.
Protests Erupt on Yale Campus Ahead of Visit by Israeli Far-Right Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir
Apr 23, 2025
Image Credit: Instagram/ @Yalies4Palestine
In New Haven, Connecticut, protests have erupted on the campus of Yale University over a planned speech this evening by Itamar Ben-Gvir, the far-right Israeli security minister who openly supports the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. In 2007, Ben-Gvir was convicted by an Israeli court of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization. On Tuesday, about 200 student protesters erected a tent encampment on Yale’s campus but canceled plans to occupy the space overnight, citing threats of “retribution” from administrators. Ahead of his visit to New Haven, Ben-Gvir attended a private dinner in his honor at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate alongside Republican lawmakers.
Ukraine Ceasefire Talks Collapse as Marco Rubio Pulls Out
Apr 23, 2025
Top diplomats from France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States have postponed a high-level meeting with Ukrainian diplomats in London, after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would skip the talks. The diplomats were set to discuss the framework of a U.S.-proposed ceasefire deal to end Russia’s war on Ukraine. The meeting’s abrupt cancellation came as a Russian drone struck a bus in the city of Marhanets, killing nine people and injuring 42 others. On Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ruled out any ceasefire deal that recognizes Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula Russia invaded in 2014.
President Volodymyr Zelensky: “Ukraine does not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea. There is nothing to talk about. This is beyond our Constitution. It’s our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine. … As soon as we start talking about Crimea, about our sovereign territories, we enter a format that Russia wants, which is to drag out the war.”
Meanwhile, The Washington Post reports the Trump administration is working to eliminate programs aimed at holding Russia and its leaders and allies accountable for alleged war crimes, including intelligence gathering on Russian atrocities committed in Ukraine.
Gunmen Attack Tourists in Indian-Administered Kashmir, Killing 26
Apr 23, 2025
Image Credit: X/ @narendramodi
India’s military says it’s searching for the gunmen who attacked tourists in the city of Pahalgam in Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday, killing 26 people and injuring a dozen others. It’s among the deadliest attacks in Kashmir in recent years, as pro-independence rebels continue to fight against New Delhi’s rule.
World Food Programme Halts Aid to 650,000 in Ethiopia Amid Funding Shortfall
Apr 23, 2025
Hunger and malnutrition are on the rise in Ethiopia due to conflict, severe drought, mass displacement and regional economic and political turmoil that’s left millions of people without access to food. That’s according to the World Food Programme, which estimates over 10 million people are facing hunger and malnutrition across Ethiopia, many of whom have been forced from their homes due to violence and the devastating impacts of the climate crisis. The agency warns conditions could likely worsen as its lifesaving food assistance response in Ethiopia is at imminent risk due to critical funding shortages — including cuts in U.S. foreign assistance.
Zlatan Milišić: “Now we are at the breaking point. We’ve been left no choice but to suspend completely the treatment for 650,000 malnourished women and children, simply because we’ve run out of commodities and funding. … We are now operating with just about 50% of last year’s funding. This means that 3.6 million vulnerable people could lose access to WFP assistance in the coming weeks, unless funding arrives urgently.”
State Department Will Eliminate Programs on Climate Crisis, Human Rights and War Crimes
Apr 23, 2025
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has announced a sweeping reorganization of the State Department. The changes will include a rollback of programs focused on Africa, the climate crisis, refugees and human rights, plus cuts to U.S. foreign assistance and the elimination of a body that seeks to investigate war crimes. At least 15% of the State Department’s U.S.-based staff will be fired. This is State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce.
Tammy Bruce: “We must make the State Department great again. In its current form, the department is bloated, bureaucratic and unable to perform its essential diplomatic mission in this new era of great power competition. … The sprawling bureaucracy created a system more beholden to radical political ideology than advancing America’s core national interests.”
Families Say Two Venezuelans “Simply Disappeared” Amid U.S. Deportations to El Salvador
Apr 23, 2025
The families of several Venezuelan immigrants are demanding answers about their relatives’ whereabouts after they were arrested and expelled from the United States to unknown locations. One of the immigrants has been identified as 32-year-old Ricardo Prada Vásquez, a delivery driver who was apprehended in late January in Michigan after making a wrong turn and then transferred to an ICE jail in Texas. Vásquez believed he’d be repatriated to Venezuela, but his family and friends have not seen or heard from him since mid-March, when the Trump administration flew three planes carrying over 200 Venezuelans from the Texas detention center where Vásquez was being held to El Salvador. Vásquez is not on the list of the 238 people confirmed to have been sent to El Salvador’s mega-prison, and he does not appear in any images released by Salvadoran authorities. U.S. authorities confirmed he’d been removed from the United States, but a friend told The New York Times, “He has simply disappeared.”
Meanwhile, the family of 27-year-old Neiyerver Adrian Leon Rengel, who is also from Venezuela, says he was similarly disappeared into the U.S. immigration system. He was taken by ICE last month, and his family says they haven’t heard from him since.
Judge Halts Plan to Reopen ICE Office at New York’s Rikers Island Jail
Apr 23, 2025
Image Credit: Mayoral Photography Office/ Michael Appleton
Here in New York, a judge has temporarily halted efforts by Mayor Eric Adams to reopen an ICE office inside the Rikers Island jail complex. Adams first signaled the move after he met with Trump’s so-called border czar Tom Homan in February.
Immigrant Advocates Ask U.N. Human Rights Council to Investigate U.S. Open-Air Detention Camps
Apr 23, 2025
Two advocacy groups working along the U.S.-Mexico border are accusing Customs and Border Protection of human rights abuses and violating international law over the agency’s practice of detaining immigrants and asylum seekers in open-air sites, where they’re exposed to extreme weather and other dangerous conditions. The Southern Border Communities Coalition and Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law have warned the Trump administration may expand its use of open-air detention in New Mexico, Arizona and California by having the U.S. military seize control of a buffer zone along a sprawling stretch of the southern border. The groups are urging the United Nations Human Rights Council to review the practice.
Democratic Lawmakers Visit Rümeysa Öztürk and Mahmoud Khalil at Louisiana ICE Jails
Apr 23, 2025
Image Credit: X/ @RepPressley
A delegation of Democratic lawmakers traveled to Louisiana on Tuesday, where they met with Tufts University Ph.D. student Rümeysa Öztürk and Columbia University graduate Mahmoud Khalil at the ICE detention centers where they’ve been jailed since March while they face deportation. Senator Ed Markey led the delegation, joined by Congressmembers Jim McGovern, Troy Carter, Bennie Thompson and Ayanna Pressley, who spoke to reporters after the meeting.
Rep. Ayanna Pressley: “Well, just another day in Donald Trump’s America — Donald Trump and his anti-freedom agenda, that means to control our very bodies, that means to control the books we read, that means to control the free press, that means to control free speech.”
The Massachusetts legislators said that Rümeysa Öztürk has suffered a number of asthmatic attacks. Click here to see our coverage of all of these cases.
Trump Says He Won’t Fire Fed Chair Jerome Powell and Will Reach Deal to Reduce Tariffs on China
Apr 23, 2025
President Trump said Tuesday he is not planning to fire Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell even as he repeated his call for the central bank to lower interest rates.
President Donald Trump: “The press runs away with things. Now, I have no intention of firing him. I would like to see him be a little more active in terms of his idea to lower interest rates. It’s a perfect time to lower interest rates. If he doesn’t, is it the end? No, it’s not. But it would be good timing.”
Trump’s statement came a day after he mocked Powell on social media, writing, “There can be a SLOWING of the economy unless Mr. Too Late, a major loser, lowers interest rates, NOW.” That comment panicked investors, causing the U.S. dollar to plummet and prompting a major sell-off on Wall Street. Meanwhile, Trump said he expects to reach a deal with Beijing to lower U.S. tariffs on Chinese products “substantially” from the 145% rate he announced earlier this month — though Trump said the rate would not be lowered to zero. Trump’s latest U-turn came as Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the U.S.-China trade war “unsustainable.”
HHS Slashes Funding to Women’s Health, Promotes Lab Leak Theory of COVID Origins
Apr 23, 2025
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said Tuesday the U.S. will begin phasing out the use of petroleum-based synthetic food dyes. Kennedy has accused food makers of “mass poisoning” children with additives frequently found in junk food.
This comes as the Trump administration continues to slash public health programs. This week, the Women’s Health Initiative said contracts supporting its regional centers are being terminated in September. The landmark research project enrolled tens of thousands of participants in clinical trials of hormones and other medications for over three decades.
Separately, Politico is reporting Robert F. Kennedy Jr. may pull COVID-19 vaccines from the government’s list of recommended immunizations for children. This comes after the Trump administration scrubbed websites of information on how to manage COVID through tests, vaccines and treatments. The sites now promote the debunked conspiracy theory that COVID-19 emerged from a virology lab in Wuhan, China.
As Tesla’s Profits Plummet, Elon Musk Says He’ll Scale Back DOGE Efforts
Apr 23, 2025
Elon Musk said Tuesday he will scale back his efforts to slash the size of the federal government to a day or two a week, beginning next month, saying his work with the so-called Department of Government Efficiency was mostly complete. Musk made the announcement in an earnings call with Tesla investors on Tuesday, after the electric car company announced its net income plunged by 71% year over year. In the call, Musk acknowledged his work with DOGE prompted “blowback” against Tesla’s brand. On Tuesday — Earth Day — police in New York arrested two protesters with the climate action group Extinction Rebellion after they sprayed anti-Musk messages on the windows of a Tesla dealership in Manhattan’s SoHo neighborhood.
EPA to Lay Off or Reassign Hundreds of Staffers Working on Environmental Justice and DEI
Apr 23, 2025
The Environmental Protection Agency has informed 450 staffers that they will be fired or reassigned from their roles working on environmental justice and diversity, equity and inclusion. The EPA announced the cuts late Monday, on the eve of Earth Day celebrations.
Three More Federal Prosecutors Resign over Dismissal of Eric Adams Probe
Apr 23, 2025
Here in New York, three more federal prosecutors have resigned to protest the Justice Department’s decision to drop federal corruption charges against Mayor Eric Adams in exchange for his cooperation with Trump’s immigration crackdown. In a joint resignation letter to Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, prosecutors Celia Cohen, Andrew Rohrbach and Derek Wikstrom write, “The Department has decided that obedience supersedes all else, requiring us to abdicate our legal and ethical obligations in favor of directions from Washington. That is wrong.”
Supreme Court Conservatives Appear Poised to Allow Parents to Opt Out of Schools with LGBTQ Books
Apr 23, 2025
The Supreme Court’s conservative majority seemed poised Tuesday to rule in favor of requiring public elementary schools to provide opt-outs for religious parents who want to pull their children out of classes due to objections to books and course materials that discuss LGBTQ+ themes. The high-profile case centers on the school system in Montgomery County, Maryland, which a few years ago began implementing a curriculum for elementary school students, such as requiring storybooks with LGBTQ+ characters, aimed at promoting respect for LGBTQ+ parents and their children. A group of religious parents then sued the school board. Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed to one of the books in question in her exchange with attorney Eric Baxter, who’s representing the group of conservative parents: “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding” is about a girl who attends her uncle’s same-sex wedding.
Justice Sonia Sotomayor: “Is there any affidavit from any parent that merely looking at people getting married, holding hands — none of them are even kissing in any of these books; the most they’re doing is holding hands — that mere exposure to that is coercion?”
Eric Baxter: “Our parents would object to that.”