US President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House. AFP
US President Donald Trump in the East Room of the White House. AFP

Did the US really send $50m of condoms to Gaza?



Live updates: Follow the latest on Israel-Gaza

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday repeated an eyebrow-raising claim made a day earlier by his new press secretary: that a new clampdown on wasteful government spending had prevented $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms.

“In that process, we identified and stopped $50 million being sent to Gaza to buy condoms for Hamas, $50 million,” Mr Trump said at the White House.

He said Hamas fighters had been using the prophylactics to build bombs, referring to reports that the militants have used condoms as balloons to float incendiary devices into Israel.

But the $50 million claim appears to be false, as the US Agency for International Development does not send condoms to the Middle East.

“It's simply disinformation,” said Dave Harden, a former USAid mission director, who led operations in Gaza and the occupied West Bank from 2013 to 2016.

Mr Harden told The National that the agency purposefully avoided reproductive health projects in the territories while he was there because it was too political.

“The notion that we sent $50 million of condoms to Gaza is nonsense,” he said.

Andrew Miller, who was deputy assistant secretary of state for Israeli-Palestinian affairs during the Biden administration, also took umbrage to the idea.

“The Biden administration did not spend $50 million on condoms for Gaza. White House either can’t read a simple spend table or it’s lying,” he said on X.

According to USAid's own accounting from 2023, the most recent year numbers are available, it sent no condoms to the Middle East that year.

The claim was first pushed by Karoline Leavitt, the new White House press secretary, on Tuesday as she gave her first briefing. When asked for clarification, she referred The National to a Fox News story.

The condoms were used as an example of why the new administration needed to temporarily pause foreign aid as Trump officials comb through what American taxpayers are paying for overseas as part of the new administration's “America First” agenda.

On Tuesday, State Department press secretary Tammy Bruce sought to clarify examples of “egregious” overseas funding. She did not specify condoms to Gaza, but did list $102 million sent to International Medical Corps in Gaza as an example. It is unclear what that included.

On his first day in office, Mr Trump signed an executive order calling for a 90-day pause in foreign development assistance. Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio issued a memo that the State Department was freezing new funding for nearly all foreign aid programmes.

On Wednesday, he issued an emergency humanitarian waiver extended to “life-saving humanitarian assistance” which the State Department described as “core life-saving medicine, medical services, food, shelter, and subsistence assistance, as well as supplies and reasonable administrative costs as necessary to deliver such assistance".

The pause and confusion around just what is still allowed has sowed fear and confusion among humanitarian aid organisations, many which depend on US funding.

TWISTERS

Director: Lee Isaac Chung

Starring: Glen Powell, Daisy Edgar-Jones, Anthony Ramos

Rating: 2.5/5

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How to protect yourself when air quality drops

Install an air filter in your home.

Close your windows and turn on the AC.

Shower or bath after being outside.

Wear a face mask.

Stay indoors when conditions are particularly poor.

If driving, turn your engine off when stationary.

ULTRA PROCESSED FOODS

- Carbonated drinks, sweet or savoury packaged snacks, confectionery, mass-produced packaged breads and buns 

- margarines and spreads; cookies, biscuits, pastries, cakes, and cake mixes, breakfast cereals, cereal and energy bars;

- energy drinks, milk drinks, fruit yoghurts and fruit drinks, cocoa drinks, meat and chicken extracts and instant sauces

- infant formulas and follow-on milks, health and slimming products such as powdered or fortified meal and dish substitutes,

- many ready-to-heat products including pre-prepared pies and pasta and pizza dishes, poultry and fish nuggets and sticks, sausages, burgers, hot dogs, and other reconstituted meat products, powdered and packaged instant soups, noodles and desserts.

If you go
Where to stay: Courtyard by Marriott Titusville Kennedy Space Centre has unparalleled views of the Indian River. Alligators can be spotted from hotel room balconies, as can several rocket launch sites. The hotel also boasts cool space-themed decor.

When to go: Florida is best experienced during the winter months, from November to May, before the humidity kicks in.

How to get there: Emirates currently flies from Dubai to Orlando five times a week.
How to avoid crypto fraud
  • Use unique usernames and passwords while enabling multi-factor authentication.
  • Use an offline private key, a physical device that requires manual activation, whenever you access your wallet.
  • Avoid suspicious social media ads promoting fraudulent schemes.
  • Only invest in crypto projects that you fully understand.
  • Critically assess whether a project’s promises or returns seem too good to be true.
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Paatal Lok season two

Directors: Avinash Arun, Prosit Roy 

Stars: Jaideep Ahlawat, Ishwak Singh, Lc Sekhose, Merenla Imsong

Rating: 4.5/5

MATCH INFO

Newcastle United 2 (Willems 25', Shelvey 88')

Manchester City 2 (Sterling 22', De Bruyne 82')

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The Cairo Statement

 1: Commit to countering all types of terrorism and extremism in all their manifestations

2: Denounce violence and the rhetoric of hatred

3: Adhere to the full compliance with the Riyadh accord of 2014 and the subsequent meeting and executive procedures approved in 2014 by the GCC  

4: Comply with all recommendations of the Summit between the US and Muslim countries held in May 2017 in Saudi Arabia.

5: Refrain from interfering in the internal affairs of countries and of supporting rogue entities.

6: Carry out the responsibility of all the countries with the international community to counter all manifestations of extremism and terrorism that threaten international peace and security

Vidaamuyarchi

Director: Magizh Thirumeni

Stars: Ajith Kumar, Arjun Sarja, Trisha Krishnan, Regina Cassandra

Rating: 4/5

 

The specs

Engine: Dual 180kW and 300kW front and rear motors

Power: 480kW

Torque: 850Nm

Transmission: Single-speed automatic

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Formula Middle East Calendar (Formula Regional and Formula 4)
Round 1: January 17-19, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 2: January 22-23, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 3: February 7-9, Dubai Autodrome – Dubai
 
Round 4: February 14-16, Yas Marina Circuit – Abu Dhabi
 
Round 5: February 25-27, Jeddah Corniche Circuit – Saudi Arabia
The biog

Name: Gul Raziq

From: Charsadda, Pakistan

Family: Wife and six children

Favourite holes at Al Ghazal: 15 and 8

Golf Handicap: 6

Childhood sport: cricket 

How to invest in gold

Investors can tap into the gold price by purchasing physical jewellery, coins and even gold bars, but these need to be stored safely and possibly insured.

A cheaper and more straightforward way to benefit from gold price growth is to buy an exchange-traded fund (ETF).

Most advisers suggest sticking to “physical” ETFs. These hold actual gold bullion, bars and coins in a vault on investors’ behalf. Others do not hold gold but use derivatives to track the price instead, adding an extra layer of risk. The two biggest physical gold ETFs are SPDR Gold Trust and iShares Gold Trust.

Another way to invest in gold’s success is to buy gold mining stocks, but Mr Gravier says this brings added risks and can be more volatile. “They have a serious downside potential should the price consolidate.”

Mr Kyprianou says gold and gold miners are two different asset classes. “One is a commodity and the other is a company stock, which means they behave differently.”

Mining companies are a business, susceptible to other market forces, such as worker availability, health and safety, strikes, debt levels, and so on. “These have nothing to do with gold at all. It means that some companies will survive, others won’t.”

By contrast, when gold is mined, it just sits in a vault. “It doesn’t even rust, which means it retains its value,” Mr Kyprianou says.

You may already have exposure to gold miners in your portfolio, say, through an international ETF or actively managed mutual fund.

You could spread this risk with an actively managed fund that invests in a spread of gold miners, with the best known being BlackRock Gold & General. It is up an incredible 55 per cent over the past year, and 240 per cent over five years. As always, past performance is no guide to the future.

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Cryopreservation: A timeline
  1. Keyhole surgery under general anaesthetic
  2. Ovarian tissue surgically removed
  3. Tissue processed in a high-tech facility
  4. Tissue re-implanted at a time of the patient’s choosing
  5. Full hormone production regained within 4-6 months
Updated: January 29, 2025, 9:33 PM